Apollo 17 1.1 Launch part 5
Corrected transcript and commentary by Eric Hartwell licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License.
- April 6: second pass, AS17_CM tape 17-3409
 |  |
[edit] S-IC First Stage
Launch Control: we have a liftoff. We have a liftoff and it's lighting up the area, its just like daylight here at Kennedy Space Center as the Saturn V is moving off the pad. It has now cleared the tower.
Cernan: Roger. The clock has started. We have you. (Laughter) Clear the tower. Roger; tower. Yaw's complete. We're into roll, Bob.
Cernan: (Technical Debriefing) Countdown - It was dark and we didn't see anything until S-IC ignition.
Cernan: (Technical Debriefing) The S-IC ignition - The lights started going out at 7 seconds, and somewhere around 3 seconds they were completely out. You could feel the ignition. You could feel the engines come up to speed. Just prior to lift-off and during the first few seconds of lift-off when we were near the pad, both the CMP and I could see the reflection of the engine ignition out the left-hand window and the hatch window in the BPC. We could not see the fire but could see a red glow through the windows reflecting apparently off the surface. Ignition was like a big old freight train sort of starting to rumble and shake and rattle and as she lifted off. We got a good tower clear.
Evans: (Technical Debriefing) I really wasn't watching the lights because I guess I didn't expect the thing to shake quite as much as it did. To me, I felt like I was really vibrating. I wanted to find out what was making me vibrate. I wasn't expecting that much vibration when the S-IC lit off. At lift-off, again, once it got vibrating, I didn't feel the yaw. I was watching the needle on the thing but didn't feel the yaw, though.
Cernan: (Technical Debriefing) Powered flight - During the actual powered flight of the S-IC you could not see anything at all. You couldn't see out the cockpit, as we had the lights up fairly bright.
Overmyer: Roger, Geno. Looking great. Thrust good on all five engines.
Cernan: Okay, babe. It's looking good here; roll is complete. We are pitching.
(unidentified): Wow woozle!
Evans: Okay, babe. Let's check the angles.
Public Affairs Officer: This is Mission Control. Gene Cernan reporting the launch vehicle maneuvering to the proper attitude, everything looking good at this point.
Evans: Thirty seconds. We're going up. Man, oh, man!
Cernan: Thirty seconds, and 17 is GO.
Overmyer: Roger, 17, you're GO.
Public Affairs Officer: First stage looks good. Altitude 1.1 miles. Booster says we look good. We are now at 2.5 miles.
Evans: Okay, 1 minute, 68 degrees.
Cernan: Okay.
Schmitt: Everything looks great over here, Gene.
Cernan: Okay. Okay, stand by for ... we're coming through for ... We'll be up ...
Evans: ... looking for.
Cernan: Okay.
Overmyer: 17, stand by for Mode I Bravo -
Overmyer: MARK. Mode I Bravo.
Cernan: Roger. I Bravo; we're GO at 1 minute.
Overmyer: 17, you're looking great. Right on the line.
Public Affairs Officer: Everybody says "Looking great - Right on the line". We're now 1 mile down range. Launch vehicle 4.2 miles high.
Cernan: Okay, we've got the RCS command.
Overmyer: Gene, you are feet wet - feet wet.
Cernan: Roger. Feet wet.
Public Affairs Officer: Coming up on maximum dynamic pressure at this point. 4 miles down range, 8 miles high and the velocity approaching 3000 feet per second.
Evans: Hey, this thing shakes like a ...
Cernan: Yes, that's max q, wait until we get out of max q; stay down there, q ...
Evans: Okay.
Cernan: (Technical Debriefing) As you go through max-q, as in the past, it gets very rough and much noisier, but I don't think we ever had any trouble hearing each other in the spacecraft. I had my intercom very high and all my S-bands and tweaked everything up prior to lift-off. We went through max-q and the only unusual thing going through max-q, considering wind components that we had was that I saw 25 percent on the ALPHA going through max-q. The yaw needle was right on, but the pitch needle had dropped to a degree and a half at the most. I guess I didn't really expect it because of the predicted wind components. After we got through max-q, you could still certainly tell the bird was burning as we pressed on toward staging, but it got much quieter and it was very evident that you were through max-q when that time came.
Evans: (Technical Debriefing) The shaking increased a little bit up to max-q and then there was a different type of shaking. It was more of a vibration, I think, going through max-q. And there was more noise associated with going through max-q.
Schmitt: (Oral History 2000) I think everybody [who] rode a Saturn V was tremendously stimulated by the experience. It's a very heavy vibration. Very slow acceleration at first, but heavy, heavy vibration as the five F-1 engines in the first stage, the S-IC, are fighting each other to some degree. You build up, over two minutes and forty-five seconds, about 4 Gs' acceleration.
Evans: 01:30, about 50 degrees.
Cernan: 50 degrees. Okay, right on.
Cernan: 01:30, and we are GO, Bob.
Overmyer: Roger, Gene. You're looking great.
Cernan: ... 2 g, 2-1/2 g. See, it quiets down after max q.
Evans: Yes, quiets down.
Cernan: Pushing 3 gs.
Evans: Okay, I can't hold my hand up there any more (laughter).
Cernan: Yes. Okay, we're out of max q.
Evans: Okay.
Schmitt: Cabin's still looking good .... PC.
Cernan: Okay, stand by for - -
Overmyer: Stand by for Mode 1 Charlie, 17.
Cernan: Mark, mode 1 Charlie.
(Tape 03407) CDR - - I Charlie - -
(PAO) SC Mark, mode 1 Charlie.
Overmyer: Mode 1 Charlie.
Public Affairs Officer: And the flight dynamics officer says we look good on all sources, right on the trajectory.
Cernan: Roger. 1 Charlie; 2 minutes and EDS is OFF and we are GO.
Overmyer: Roger, 17, you're go.
(Tape 03407) 17, you're GO.
(PAO) Roger, 17, you're go.
Evans: ... does pull a couple of g's.
Cernan: Three g's; 3-1/2. Stand by for inboard.
Overmyer: 17, you are GO for staging.
Cernan: Roger. We are GO here.
Public Affairs Officer: Flight Director, Gene Kranz, taking a status for staging, we say we look good for staging.
Cernan: Did you get your VERB 82?
Evans: No.
Cernan: Stand by for inboard.
Evans: Okay, that's VERB 82.
Schmitt: Yes.
Cernan: Inboard cutoff.
Overmyer: Stand by.
Overmyer: Roger. Inboard.
(Air-to-Ground) Only
Public Affairs Officer: Inboard engines shutting down on time as planned. Crew will experience maximum G forces of about 4 Gs at shutdown. Coming up on first stage shutdown.
Cernan: Okay, now hold on to that staging.
Schmitt: Stand by, gang.
Cernan: Okay.
Evans: Here's 20, where's the ...?
Cernan: Okay, it's 19.
(Tape 03407) CDR: Now at 41. / CMP: 41, okay. / CDR: 3-1/2 g's. Hold on. / CMP: Okay. / CDR: Five seconds. Pushing 4 g's. / CMP: 4 g's. / CDR: Told you to hold on. Look at that son of a gun. / CMP: Man .... criminy (laughter).
(Tape 03404) Attributes all comments 02 26 to 02 49 to CDR, not CDR/CMP. "CDR Okay; it's 19. Now it's 41 - 41. 3-1/2 g. Hold on. Okay. Five seconds. Pushing 4 g - 4 g. It's starting to hold on. Look at that son-of-a-gun! Man, this is ... (Laughter)
Cernan: Now at 41.
Evans: 41, okay.
Cernan: 3-1/2 g's. Hold on.
Evans: Okay.
Cernan: Five seconds. Pushing 4 g's.
Evans: 4 g's.
Cernan: (Technical Debriefing) If you want to put them in more layman terms, I think the S-IC acted and performed like some big, old, rugged, shaky, big monster. It has to be noisy, has lots of vibration, and smoothed out somewhat after max-q, but still was a rumbling bird.
Schmitt: (Technical Debriefing) I think that it is good to do a lot of simulation about malfunctions during launch, but up through max-q it is a little bit unrealistic to think that you are going to analyze a malfunction in the spacecraft.
Cernan: (Technical Debriefing) To sum up the S-IC, I personally didn't think it was any different than my previous ride on the S-IC and up through this point being a night launch really didn't make any difference at all. The only thing I did different that I hadn't really though a lot about until I sat on the pad and began to think about staging was, just prior to staging, I took my hand off the abort handle and held the support arm rather than the translation control handle until after staging. I did this just a couple of seconds prior to staging. I had talked about it with John Young a little bit prior to the flight and it turns out that's what he did, also. Probably a good thing.
Cernan: Told you to hold on. Look at that son of a gun.
Evans: Man .... criminy (laughter).
Acceleration during S-IC outboard engine cutoff, measured at the Command Module. The four to five hertz oscillation was typical of the Saturn V's first longitudinal vibration mode.
Evans: (Technical Debriefing) Of course, with the shutdown of the S-IC, I think that was about 4-1/2g.
Cernan: (Technical Debriefing) We pushed 4g.
Schmitt: (Technical Debriefing) Just pushing 4g on the thing and it quits just like that. I was prepared for it because Gene had said, "Hey, brace yourselves because it is going to happen," and it happened all right. It just flat quit when we went from 4g to 0.
Cernan: (Technical Debriefing) The great train wreck.
Schmitt: (Technical Debriefing) I think in all those booster cutoffs, it's hard to see how rapidly the g-level decreases.
Schmitt: (Oral History 2000) Very slow acceleration at first, but heavy, heavy vibration as the five F-1 engines in the first stage, the S-IC, are fighting each other to some degree. You build up, over two minutes and forty-five seconds, about 4 Gs' acceleration. At that point everything shuts down. You drop off the first stage and then you ignite the second stage, the S-II, and you're back on your way, but only at one and a half Gs. So there's a big change, it's from 4 Gs to minus one and a half, as the whole stack unloads, to plus one and a half, as you go on on the second stage. And that all happens in just slightly over a second. So that is probably the most dynamically exciting point in the mission, certainly in the launch part of it. From then on it's pretty straightforward. You get into orbit in about ten minutes using all three stages.
References:
This is NOT the official Apollo 17 Flight Journal (yet)
Please use the Discussion link at the bottom of each page to add your comments or corrections.